Our Adoption Story...

[ScoobyWoo]

I haven' been online for ages!

Life is busy at the moment; working 2 jobs, preparing for our first abroad holiday in 7 years next month and most importantly- adjusting to life with our latest and most fluffy addition to the family!

Hattie is well and truly settled in now, she's a calm and content hammie and is showing her true personality now.

She is a massive chewer and is systematically destroying everything in her cage, so far she is only chewing things that should be chewed (no bars so far- thank goodness) so we're happy with that. Her chill and chew mat is pretty much destroyed! She likes to nibble fabric (my top! cushion on the sofa!) so it is safe to say she will not be having any cosy pouches or hammocks in her cage in the near future! Haha!

She loves to climb and will always take the difficult routes up to the shelves in her cage rather than using the ramps and ladders.

She also likes to just sit and "watch" what is going on, she perches on her shelves/bridges and washes a bit and then stares out at us and then washes a bit more.

She still doesn't seem to be using her wheel a great deal, she will go into it and walk a few steps and then come out again- it runs fine, I just don't think she likes it.

She does however seem to like her ball, we introduced it on Thursday, she doesn't run around like crazy in it, she just wanders a bit then stops for a sniff, wanders a bit more then stops for more sniffing. If we put the ball (open) in the corner of the playpen or on the sofa, she will go straight to it and climb in so we're assuming she quite likes it or is at least curious about it.

She is very food orientated and up until yesterday we hadn't found anything that she didn't like- however we tried her with basil yesterday and she didn't bother with it and today we tried chicken for the first time and she physically spit it out! Haha! She loves cheese though and mealworms so protein is still ok

Next month, she'll be going to stay with our friends for 10 days whilst we're away so I've been writing some care instructions out today for them and putting some her her treats into little pots to send with her.

Next weekend we're going to give her cage it's first proper clean since she came home as it will have been about a month, so think it's time for a bit of a fettle, although we're going to keep some of the substrate back and just replace half or 2 thirds of it.

Think that's about it for her little update for now, she's currently munching on her bendy bridge- little vandal!

Oooh- also, we have weighed her now. She's weighing in at 210g so a chunky monkey but not too big we don't think?

[Pebbles82]

210g sounds like a healthy large hamster Charlie was consistently been 220g since adulthood (except recently due to a few issues and old age maybe).

She sounds adorable and fun! I can just imagine her chewing everything lol. Sometimes they just like sitting in the ball because it's round or has a hole for an entrance I think I bet she uses her wheel more at night.

[Thin Lizzy]

Wow! 210g is chunky lol! How old is Hattie?

[SKB_Hamsters]

Hattie sounds like a large hamster weighing 210g (Sherbet only weighs around 140g but she is a small Syrian).

Hattie sounds like she full of character, it's good that she rather chew her toys than the bars. She uses her ball more than my Sherbet she would groom herself in it and then fall sleep. I love reading her updates she seems like she has so much personality.